First Quarter Edition 2000Spring 2001
Summer 2001| First Quarter Edition 2000 |
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Spring 2001 | Summer 2001 |
 State League ConventionFlawed Process (Jean Aoki)Money and Politics (Nikki Love)President's Message (Maile Bay)Judiciary Study Committee Receives Grant (Jean Aoki)Campaign Finance Reform Legislation (Laure Dillon)Education Committee Report (Mary Anne Raywid)Health Care Laws and Domestic ViolenceLocal League News - HonoluluLocal League News - KauaiLocal League News - HawaiiCoalition Against Legalized Gambling (Grace Furukawa)Programs Recommended by the Board of DirectorsStudies Planned by Local Leagues for 2001-2002Report of the Nominating Committee |
Education Committee ReportThe Education Committee's efforts have gone during the present legislative session to opposing bad bills, rather than to supporting good ones. We began it with two bills of our own. One urged that the DOE be required to collect and disseminate specified information regarding schools. The intent was not only to see that the public had access to such information (e.g., dropout rates, retention rates, teacher turnover rates) but also to provide a context for, and in some cases offset, the test score information now disseminated. Our second bill proposed initiatives to encourage Hawaii's dangerously large schools to downsize by establishing schools-within-schools. To make sure that the incentives proposed became available only to appropriate efforts, we specified necessary features for school plans in order to qualify. Unfortunately, our bills were entrusted for introduction to the wrong Representative – who rolled the first into something obscure and mangled the second. When we learned of this, it was too late to do anything about it-without struggling to win the war while losing the battle. Thus, our efforts have been concentrated on opposing two bills that would have shut down or ruined the charter school effort – and, with trying to modify new charter school bills recommended by the Board of Education. The League's committee chair has continued to work with the DOE in responding to charter school proposals; with the state advisory committee to the Comprehensive School Alienation Program; and was invited to Washington to participate in the scoring of proposals from charter schools seeking federal grants. Mary Anne Raywid |
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